Body Image
How many women on planet earth are happy with their body image? From infancy, girls are taught to judge themselves against stereotypes of beauty and acceptability, and to find themselves sadly lacking.
Women are told by friends, family and society that they are the too small, fat, flat-chested or dumpy.
This greatly damages women's self-esteem and self-love.
This lack of acceptance of the body is at the root of much of women's psychological and emotional pain and disturbance.
Bulimia and Women's Preoccupation with Thinness In "Fat is a Feminist Issue", Orbach (1988) explores the reasons why many women are compulsive eaters and suffer from bulimia.
Women who are termed bulimic follow a self-destructive pattern of bingeing, consuming huge amounts of food addictively and then forcing themselves to vomit, to purge themselves of the distasteful food.
Many women whom Orbach has worked with in her psychotherapy practice go on binges to fill the lonely void in their lives.
Many hate their bodies, feel disgust and guilt for being fat but also feel that the extra layers of fat give them a kind of protection, helping them to feel less weak and vulnerable in such a patriarchal world.
Many women who are overweight feel that at least they will not be treated as sex objects, unlike women who are considered to be beautiful who are often trivialised by men.
The fear of being harassed at work and on the streets is another reason why some women subconsciously choose to be fat.
These women believe that their padded bodies will protect them from being on the receiving end of leering gazes, unwanted sexual attention and wolf whistles.
Anorexia Nervosa Orbach (1993) draws from her psychoanalytical and therapeutic experience in "Hunger Strike"' to explore the reasons why so many women are suffering from anorexia.
Statistics show that hundreds of thousands of women die from the affects of anorexia in the US, in Europe and in Australia every year.
Anorexia is the extremity of a problem that affects millions of women who eat less than the medically-calculated number of calories needed to nurture and feed their bodies.
The anorectic woman initially tries to transform her body into that which will be acceptable to society.
But she also seeks to deny her femininity by straightening out the curves of her body, ceasing to menstruate and no longer to bare any sign that she is capable of reproduction.
In this way she surpasses society's demands that a woman be thin and desirable and instead goes on a form of hunger strike, trying to control even her most basic need for food as she has been brought-up to deny all her emotional needs.
Women Suppressing Emotional Needs Tracing the development of women's body image and self-concept, Orbach (1993) refers to the importance of the mother-daughter relationship.
Basically, the mother is often not able to express or fill her own needs, often having been reared in an oppressive and controlling patriarchal household and society.
The daughter therefore learns from the mother to suppress her needs, especially her emotional hunger and her need for individual fulfilment, and instead to nurture and be responsible for the needs of others.
The whole area of food is another emotionally-loaded issue, as the mother often has a preoccupation with food, preparing appetising meals for the men of the house while continuing to diet and keep herself thin.
The mother may refuse to allow her daughter to eat as often as natural hunger demands.
Western culture has become obsessed with keeping women thin and sexually desirable to give pleasure to men, while denying their own inherent right to enjoy body sensations and the physical and emotional feelings of fullness.
In adolescence the mother may be involved in trying to get her daughter to lose 'puppy fat'.
She may believe that weight loss will help her daughter to fit the cultural image of female acceptability, while at the same time denying her daughter's sexual development and need for intimacy, probably as her needs were denied by her own mother.
Creating a False Self for Survival Orbach (1993) states that the mother-daughter relationship is of immense importance to a woman's psychological development.
This begins in infancy when the bad or needy feelings that the female child feels are suppressed; as she feels there is no way that they will be ever filled.
To survive this pain she develops the belief that she shouldn't have needs.
Therefore the first split occurs: it is unacceptable to have needs, so the female child simply develops a false self to cope with this unbearable situation.
Her body too is split from her true self and becomes an object that must be controlled and manipulated to fit in with society's expectations.
She learns that if her body is acceptable then people will like her.
Her self-esteem and her whole sense of self is desperately insecure, as she judges herself against society's notion of desirability.
Thus the scene is set for self-starvation, for going a step further and denying that she has any need for food.
Food becomes the symbol for unlocking the horrible emptiness of her mind and soul, the admission of psychic hunger and emotional depredation that could so easily destroy her.
Therefore food becomes the enemy, and starvation her salvation.
Therapists who work with women who are anorexic must explore the cultural roots of women's lack of self-esteem and their propensity towards self-annihilation.
Therapists need to realise that for these women their emaciated bodies are an attempt to deal with the feelings of alienation and worthlessness that surface unless they conform to some impossible ideal.
Women are told by friends, family and society that they are the too small, fat, flat-chested or dumpy.
This greatly damages women's self-esteem and self-love.
This lack of acceptance of the body is at the root of much of women's psychological and emotional pain and disturbance.
Bulimia and Women's Preoccupation with Thinness In "Fat is a Feminist Issue", Orbach (1988) explores the reasons why many women are compulsive eaters and suffer from bulimia.
Women who are termed bulimic follow a self-destructive pattern of bingeing, consuming huge amounts of food addictively and then forcing themselves to vomit, to purge themselves of the distasteful food.
Many women whom Orbach has worked with in her psychotherapy practice go on binges to fill the lonely void in their lives.
Many hate their bodies, feel disgust and guilt for being fat but also feel that the extra layers of fat give them a kind of protection, helping them to feel less weak and vulnerable in such a patriarchal world.
Many women who are overweight feel that at least they will not be treated as sex objects, unlike women who are considered to be beautiful who are often trivialised by men.
The fear of being harassed at work and on the streets is another reason why some women subconsciously choose to be fat.
These women believe that their padded bodies will protect them from being on the receiving end of leering gazes, unwanted sexual attention and wolf whistles.
Anorexia Nervosa Orbach (1993) draws from her psychoanalytical and therapeutic experience in "Hunger Strike"' to explore the reasons why so many women are suffering from anorexia.
Statistics show that hundreds of thousands of women die from the affects of anorexia in the US, in Europe and in Australia every year.
Anorexia is the extremity of a problem that affects millions of women who eat less than the medically-calculated number of calories needed to nurture and feed their bodies.
The anorectic woman initially tries to transform her body into that which will be acceptable to society.
But she also seeks to deny her femininity by straightening out the curves of her body, ceasing to menstruate and no longer to bare any sign that she is capable of reproduction.
In this way she surpasses society's demands that a woman be thin and desirable and instead goes on a form of hunger strike, trying to control even her most basic need for food as she has been brought-up to deny all her emotional needs.
Women Suppressing Emotional Needs Tracing the development of women's body image and self-concept, Orbach (1993) refers to the importance of the mother-daughter relationship.
Basically, the mother is often not able to express or fill her own needs, often having been reared in an oppressive and controlling patriarchal household and society.
The daughter therefore learns from the mother to suppress her needs, especially her emotional hunger and her need for individual fulfilment, and instead to nurture and be responsible for the needs of others.
The whole area of food is another emotionally-loaded issue, as the mother often has a preoccupation with food, preparing appetising meals for the men of the house while continuing to diet and keep herself thin.
The mother may refuse to allow her daughter to eat as often as natural hunger demands.
Western culture has become obsessed with keeping women thin and sexually desirable to give pleasure to men, while denying their own inherent right to enjoy body sensations and the physical and emotional feelings of fullness.
In adolescence the mother may be involved in trying to get her daughter to lose 'puppy fat'.
She may believe that weight loss will help her daughter to fit the cultural image of female acceptability, while at the same time denying her daughter's sexual development and need for intimacy, probably as her needs were denied by her own mother.
Creating a False Self for Survival Orbach (1993) states that the mother-daughter relationship is of immense importance to a woman's psychological development.
This begins in infancy when the bad or needy feelings that the female child feels are suppressed; as she feels there is no way that they will be ever filled.
To survive this pain she develops the belief that she shouldn't have needs.
Therefore the first split occurs: it is unacceptable to have needs, so the female child simply develops a false self to cope with this unbearable situation.
Her body too is split from her true self and becomes an object that must be controlled and manipulated to fit in with society's expectations.
She learns that if her body is acceptable then people will like her.
Her self-esteem and her whole sense of self is desperately insecure, as she judges herself against society's notion of desirability.
Thus the scene is set for self-starvation, for going a step further and denying that she has any need for food.
Food becomes the symbol for unlocking the horrible emptiness of her mind and soul, the admission of psychic hunger and emotional depredation that could so easily destroy her.
Therefore food becomes the enemy, and starvation her salvation.
Therapists who work with women who are anorexic must explore the cultural roots of women's lack of self-esteem and their propensity towards self-annihilation.
Therapists need to realise that for these women their emaciated bodies are an attempt to deal with the feelings of alienation and worthlessness that surface unless they conform to some impossible ideal.
Source...